Anabasis eBook

[5] “Ctesias, the son of Ctesiochus, was a physician
of Cnidos.
Seventeen years of his life
were passed at the court of Persia,
fourteen in the service of
Darios, three in that of Artaxerxes; he
returned to Greece in 398
B.C.,” and “was employed by Artaxerxes
in diplomatic services.”
See Mure; also Ch. Muller, for his life
and works. He wrote (1)
a history on Persian affairs in three
parts—­Assyrian,
Median, Persian—­with a chapter “On
Tributes;”
(2) a history of Indian affairs
(written in the vein of Sir John
Maundeville, Kt.); (3) a Periplus;
(4) a treatise on Mountains;
(5) a treatise on Rivers.

IX

So died Cyrus; a man the kingliest[1] and most worthy
to rule of all 1 the Persians who have lived since
the elder Cyrus: according to the concurrent
testimony of all who are reputed to have known him
intimately. To begin from the beginning, when
still a boy, and whilst being brought up with his
brother and the other lads, his unrivalled excellence
was recognised. For the sons of the noblest Persians,
it must be known, are brought up, one and all, at
the king’s portals. Here lessons of sobriety
and self-control may largely be laid to heart, while
there is nothing base or ugly for eye or ear to feed
upon. There is the daily spectacle ever before
the boys of some receiving honour from the king, and
again of others receiving dishonour; and the tale
of all this is in their ears, so that from earliest
boyhood they learn how to rule and to be ruled.

[1] The character now to be drawn is afterwards elaborated
into the
Cyrus of the Cyropaedeia.

In this courtly training Cyrus earned a double reputation;
first he was held to be a paragon of modesty among
his fellows, rendering an obedience to his elders
which exceeded that of many of his own inferiors;
and next he bore away the palm for skill in horsemanship
and for love of the animal itself. Nor less in
matters of war, in the use of the bow and the javelin,
was he held by men in general to be at 5 once the
aptest of learners and the most eager practiser.
As soon as his age permitted, the same pre-eminence
showed itself in his fondness for the chase, not without
a certain appetite for perilous adventure in facing
the wild beasts themselves. Once a bear made a
furious rush at him[2], and without wincing he grappled
with her, and was pulled from his horse, receiving
wounds the scars of which were visible through life;
but in the end he slew the creature, nor did he forget
him who first came to his aid, but made him enviable
in the eyes of many.